


Unexpected Addition

by MelyndaR



Series: (Mis)Matched Perfection [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Tattoos, F/M, Gen, Multi, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 02:12:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7916413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack winced in a way that had slightly less to do with physical pain as he admitted carefully, “I may have been shot while we were in LA.”<br/>“Shot?!”<br/>“But we caught the guy before we all came back to New York,” Daniel hurried to assure her.<br/>Edwin and Peggy both flanked the waitress as she started to look rather unsteady on her feet, and Ana quickly pulled out the nearest chair, only for Angie to shake her head and square her jaw. “No, I’m clockin’ out first, then I’m getting a real good explanation of whatever – of everything that – happened in LA.” Ice blue eyes scanned them all levelly as she demanded, “Understood?”<br/>“If you’re sure,” Jack replied hesitantly.<br/>Angie nodded jerkily, and went to clock out.<br/>Looking from her back to the other four with him, Jack asked, “Does that mean that we’re telling her about Ana’s shooting, and mine and hers new soulmate tattoos, and Peggy kissing everybody, too?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Addition

After Jack’s shooting, things changed more than Peggy had ever thought they would. After reaching some sort of pact or truce with Jack regarding working together, Daniel _gave up his position in LA_ to move back to New York City so that he could be closer to Peggy and Jack. Edwin and Ana, realizing they were about to be without any of their _other_ significant others, convinced Howard that the movie studio idea was a bust – and, really, in Peggy’s opinion, it truly was – and the three of them went back to New York City as well.

Peggy had never seen Edwin so excited, but she had to admit that she, for one, would miss the sunshine.

However, returning to New York meant she got to have a different sort of sunshine in her life once again: her roommate, Angie Martinelli.

“Roommate,” in fact, seemed a little too small a word to use to describe Angie Martinelli, let alone Peggy’s friendship with her, but it was by far the simplest label, even if it did utterly fail to describe how very big a part of her life Angie had become. But, then again, most things seemed small when Peggy tried to contain Angie within them. She was a vocal, vibrant, flirtatious, fun young woman, and easily one of Peggy’s closest friends.

Angie and Ana very much reminded Peggy of one another, actually, and she had wondered while in LA if Angie might not be what Ana had been before the war had turned her into a woman who struggled with nightmares and shellshock that she wouldn’t even admit she had.

As it was, even as Peggy bemoaned the loss of the sunshine, she _was_ excited to see Angie again, so much so that she asked Edwin to stop in at the L&L Automat so that she could surprise Angie at work.

“You didn’t even tell her we were on our way back?” Daniel asked.

“I did not,” Peggy answered with a grin from where she was sandwiched between Ana and Daniel in the back of the car, Jack having been granted the passenger seat thanks to his recent injury. “She likes surprises. If, that is, you wouldn’t all mind going to see her. I suppose you wouldn’t even have to get out of the car, if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’ll get out,” Daniel agreed.

“Sure;” Jack seconded from the front. “I think I need more stretching after being in the plane for so long anyway.”

“Poor baby,” Peggy cooed.

Ana swatted playfully at her before saying, “I agree with Jack.”

“Of course you do,” Edwin said dismissively, even as he smiled teasingly. “You’re newly bonded to him; you’ll agree with whatever he wants.”

“That’s not at all true,” Jack said. “Have you ever had her as your self-appointed nurse – what am I saying, of course _you_ have – she’s very strict. Demands lots of…” he curled up his nose. “ _Rest_.”

No less than three people in the car shuddered dramatically, and Ana only rolled her eyes, taking their good-natured teasing with a smile. “Weren’t we discussing Miss Martinelli a moment ago?”

“Only establishing that we were all going in to see her,” Edwin replied.

Peggy asked, “Have you met her, yet, Ana?”

“I have not.”

“You’ll adore her,” Peggy promised with a smile.

Hesitantly, Edwin spoke up, saying, “It occurs to me just now that Miss Martinelli and Ana becoming friends…”

“Is a slightly terrifying thought,” Jack picked up where Edwin trailed off.

Ana grinned. “This sounds like it’s going to be fun!”

* * *

“Gah!” Angie startled and spun around all in one fluid movement as someone hugged her around the shoulders from behind. “English, don’t scare me like that!” She froze, realizing who she was seeing, before she threw her arms around her friend, repeating excitedly, “English!” Peggy laughed happily, hugging Angie just as tightly as she was being hugged. “You’re here! I didn’t know you were coming back yet!”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Peggy explained. “ _And_ everyone showed up to do it.”

Angie grinned over Peggy’s shoulder at the others, only for the brunette to step out of the way so that Angie could hug Mr. Jarvis next. “How are you doing, Mr. Fancy?”

“Quite alright, Miss Martinelli,” he replied, patting her back while a redheaded woman that Angie hadn’t noticed before quietly laughed in surprise. “Ah, yes,” her laugh had apparently reminded him of something, because as they separated, he gestured the redhead forward with a smile, saying, “Miss Martinelli, meet my wife, Ana.”

Angie grinned, sparing a moment to wonder if she ought to be embarrassed over the way she’d just hugged the woman’s husband while she was right there, but then she decided she didn’t care, and stuck her hand out with a smile. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Fancy.”

“Oh, no need to be so _formal_ ,” Ana teased, going straight for a hug that Angie was surprised and happy to return. “You can call me Ana for now, if you like. But, from what I’ve heard of you, I expect to have a nickname within two months; do you think that’s doable?”

Angie slowly started to smile as she looked at Ana, saying enthusiastically, “I think I love you, Red.”

“This,” Jack said flatly. “Is going to be terrifying, isn’t it?”

Daniel amended as he looked at the two women, “Or amazing.” Widening his smile, he stepped up between the duo and asked Angie, “Can I have a hug too, or Mr. Fancy special today?”

“You’re all special, and you’re all getting hugs,” Angie promised, slapping his arm lightly. “And then, because you all have amazing timing, I am going to go clock out and we’re going to eat lunch together… if that’s okay?”

Peggy looked around at her four soulmates before she verified, “That would be lovely, Angie.”

So Angie hugged Daniel with a grin, and then did the same to Jack, only to frown as he hissed in pain. “What’s the matter?” she asked, jerking away worriedly. “What’d I do?”

“It wasn’t you,” Jack assured her, keeping a hand on her arm. “I’m just still healing is all.”

“Healing from what?”

The other five exchanged startled looks, and it was Peggy who said slowly, “No one… called to tell… you… did they?”

“Tell me what, English?” Squeezing Jack’s arm with a look of growing alarm, she demanded, “What happened?”

Jack winced in a way that had slightly less to do with physical pain as he admitted carefully, “I may have been shot while we were in LA.”

“ _Shot?!”_

“But we caught the guy before we all came back to New York,” Daniel hurried to assure her.

Edwin and Peggy both flanked the waitress as she started to look rather unsteady on her feet, and Ana quickly pulled out the nearest chair, only for Angie to shake her head and square her jaw. “No, I’m clockin’ out first, then I’m getting a real good explanation of whatever – of _everything_ that – happened in LA.” Ice blue eyes scanned them all levelly as she demanded, “Understood?”

“If you’re sure,” Jack replied hesitantly.

Angie nodded jerkily, and went to clock out.

Looking from her back to the other four with him, Jack asked, “Does that mean that we’re telling her about Ana’s shooting, and mine and hers new soulmate tattoos, and Peggy kissing everybody, too?”

* * *

_It was funny_ , Ana thought to herself, _how much more a fresh pair of eyes could see as opposed to someone who was used to seeing the situation the way they wanted to._ She stayed mostly silent, watching as the other four explained to Angie exactly what had transpired in LA, and she got the distinct feeling that those same four people didn’t see what was going on right here under their very own noses.

Well, _now maybe_ Edwin was beginning to see it, judging by the strange looks he kept giving Angie, and then Jack, Daniel, and Peggy, but it was equally clear that if he was catching on to anything he didn’t know what to do about it.

Ana, however, was perfectly content to call them all out on it at the first moment an opportunity arose to do so in private. That was why she asked to come in – and invited everyone else in as well – when they dropped Peggy and Angie off at their house… where Daniel would also be staying “for the time being, until he could find another apartment.”

Edwin in particular gave her a strange look, but he trooped into the house along with everyone else, even handing off some of the many suitcases for others to carry in.

So they deposited the bags in the appropriate bedrooms, and unanimously seemed to decide to leave them for later as they all moved into the sitting room instead.

_Perfect for what she wanted_ ,  Ana thought.

Because right now she wanted to discuss Angie, and the waitress’s… passionate reactions to everything that she’d heard this afternoon. The waitress cared about all of these people, that much was abundantly clear, but based on the severity of her reactions, even while they had been in public, Ana was left wondering just _how much_ the other woman cared about them. And she had every intention of asking.

So she followed everyone into the sitting room, watching them peel off jackets, hats, and shoes while she did the same. Sitting down to take off her shoes – _really, she just wanted to be comfortable; if she got her way she had a feeling this conversation might take a while_ – Ana gasped, feeling a decidedly _un_ comfortable flare of pain in her stomach as she leaned over.

Nearest her, Edwin and Angie both looked over, and Edwin reminded her, “No stooping, Mrs. Jarvis.”

Ana rolled her eyes _mostly_ fondly, and gestured towards her shoes as if to ask him what else he intended for her to do.

“Here.” Angie made quick work of kicking her shoes off and all but underneath one of the sofas, then knelt down in front of Ana with a small smile that held both laughter and worry. “Nice shoes, by the way,” she commented as she removed them from Ana’s feet.

“You could borrow them, if you like.”

“I think they’d be a bit too big for me; thanks for the offer, though.”

Angie set the shoes aside and stood to her feet, only for Ana to reach for her hand to catch her attention again as she asked softly, “The things that you were told at the automat – did they worry you too much?”

 A frown tugged the edges of Angie’s mouth decidedly down as she shrugged.

“No, no, no,” Ana shook her head, drawing Angie down onto the couch beside her. “Tell me the truth now. I know it frightened me when I first realized what was happening – what they were doing every day – and it still does, really. I care about them too much for it not to… and I think that you do, too.”

At that, Angie tried her best to offer Ana a genuine smile… and the brush-off, “But they’re _your_ soulmates, of course you’re going to worry about them.”

“Only half of them are my soulmates,” Ana reminded her, shaking her head. “Just Edwin, and very recently Jack. Peggy is a mismatch and Daniel and I aren’t supposed to be anything to one another.”

Cocking her head to the side, Angie caught the way she worded the part about Daniel, and asked curiously, “But you are ‘something to each other’?”

Ana nodded, smiling gently. “After both Jack and I were shot, it changed things… I think, ultimately for the better. It made us think about… what we were to each other, and what maybe we wanted to be. So we talked about it, and we decided to try… being the five of us.” For the first time, she looked away from Angie, towards where Jack was talking with Daniel instead as she asked thoughtfully, “But do you know what the problem is with ‘the _five_ of us’?”

“What?”

“It’s uneven.” She turned back to Angie, explaining, “I have Edwin, and it’s very clear to everyone that Peggy and Daniel are very close – Peggy has farther to go with Jack, absolutely – and I’m afraid that Jack will… feel left out, or fall by the wayside somehow.”

“I doubt you’ll let that happen, Red.”

“Not on purpose, no, but… in public, the way the world must see us for now, it is me and my husband, and Peggy and Daniel, and… who does Jack have to be at his side _then_? I feel like we need someone else, too, silly of me though that may be, and I think that you would be perfect for us, Angie.”

Angie’s eyes widened and she laughed in a way that was almost brittle as she told Ana, “Really? Because the others have never seen it that way, and, frankly, it ain’t for lack of trying on my part.”

“Meaning what?” Ana asked curiously.

“It started with Peg, okay? I met her first, and she was this clearly lonely lady who was always coming in with sad eyes, half the time banged up, and I thought at first that she was in a bad marriage or something, so I reached out to her, mothered her a little, and we became friends. I _liked_ her.”

“Flirting,” Ana murmured her realization under her breath.

Angie shrugged. “Just a little, not so that she’d notice. She chocked it up to me just being a flirty person – not the truth, if she ever saw me with most of my other customers.”

“ _Most_ of them? Were there others that you flirted with as well?” Ana asked with a grin.

Angie gestured to where Jack and Daniel still stood together, replying, “I met them as English’s soulmates, but… ya’ know… _look at ‘em_.”

Ana laughed out loud then, before she surmised, “But that didn’t help Peggy’s ‘it’s just her personality’ thought, did it?”

Angie shook her head woefully, and Ana couldn’t help but pull her in for a one-armed hug, suggesting mostly seriously, “I think someone needs to set this right for you, Angie.”

“What do you mean?” Angie asked a little nervously.

“Do you still like them – and for that matter, is it just those three that you like?”

“What do you mean?” Angie repeated, sitting up a little straighter, and looking at Ana with nervousness fluttering behind her eyes. “Because, truth be told, I think _you_ are absolutely wonderful.”

“Hm,” Ana grinned, squeezing Angie’s shoulders again. “Thank you, my dear, and the same to you, however, that was not necessarily who I was talking about, and you know it very well.”

Angie bit the bullet then. “Yes, Mr. Fancy’s wonderful too.”

“The same sort of wonderful as the others, maybe?”

“Yeah, sure, but, Ana, it doesn’t matter, because they don’t see it that way!”

“You know,” Ana paused. “I should’ve asked this far earlier, but do you have any soulmates of your own?”

Angie bit the inside of her cheek, looking down at her lap as she shook her head. “No, I’m unmarked – not meant for anybody.”

“Maybe that’s only because you would be good for… well, ‘anybody.’” Ana gently tilted Angie’s chin so that she was meeting her eyes, and ignored the way that the other four had started to take note of their conversation, praying that Angie didn’t notice in the mean time. “Listen to me. I heard about Peggy Carter from Edwin long before I met her… but did you know that I heard about Angie Martinelli too? She was painted as this… lively, independent, caring dreamer who had enough ferocity to fight for her dreams. I wanted to meet her too, and now that I have… Angie, I’m sorry that they were blind to what you trying to get across to them, to how you were trying to show them that you care – and in what way you care – but don’t give up on them… maybe even on,” here Ana became a little more hesitant. “Maybe even on all five of us, because…” she chuckled suddenly. “Angie, they’re crazy. They’re…” she blew out a breath, unable to find the words.

“They have no sense of self-preservation,” Angie supplied dryly.

“Yes! Precisely! And I,” Ana swallowed, admitting, “I will go insane if I try to be the only one even attempting to… I will go _in_ sane trying to be the only sane one. I’m going to need help doing that… and Jack is going to need that partner for the public, and… Angie, there is a spot for you in this group, if you are willing to take it and… grow into this group with us; I can _feel_ it.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t want me there,” Angie replied sadly, tears glimmering in her eyes. “And I’m not going to wedge myself in somewhere I don’t belong.”

“But what if you do belong?” That question from Peggy, who had snuck up to stand at the back of the couch.

“Angie, it was _never_ that we didn’t want you,” Edwin added, a surprising surety in his tone as he slid into the space on the couch behind Ana. “Because, trust me, we did. We _do_.”

From beside Peggy, Daniel explained, “We just… like you and Ana said, we thought that the flirting was you being you, and we just weren’t sure if _you_ wanted _us_ – any of us, let alone all of us.”

Jack put a hand on Angie’s shoulder from behind her, saying, “But if you _do_ want us, then it sounds to me like we’re all just selfish enough to steal from the rest of the world. If you’ll have us?”

Angie twisted around to look Jack in his warily vulnerable blue eyes, then slowly let her gaze scan the rest of them. Daniel and Peggy, smiling softly and hopefully at her while he had his arm around Peggy’s waist, Edwin absently massaging Ana’s shoulder even as he studied Angie with great anticipation in his eyes, and Ana with a soft smile on her face and love already in her eyes watching Angie like she already knew what was going to happen next.

“But I don’t have any of your tattoos, and none of you have mine…” Angie said, one last flimsy excuse even as it dawned on her that she already knew she would give into them.

“Forget tattoos,” Jack declared instantly. “I don’t even care about those anymore, and I’m the most traditional in that area out of all of you guys.”

“Besides,” Edwin remarked. “I may have a plan in that regard, if it truly bothers you.”

“Do you love us?” Peggy asked softly. “Because that’s all that matters to any of us here.”

“If you want us,” Daniel added. “We absolutely want you, Ang. All you have to do is agree.”

“And given that you’ve been flirting with us for years, I’m pretty sure we all know what the answer is here,” Jack remarked, giving the situation a little bit of levity.

Angie tilted her head so that she could look back at him, smiling before she nodded. “All right.” She laughed with something like relief and elation as she said. “Fine. Great! Whatever this is, I wanna be a part of it, yes! I’ve got the lot of you, and you’ve got me. Yes, yes, yes!”

Jack tucked a finger underneath her chin, gently kissing her – upside down though it was – before he murmured, speaking for them all, “Perfect.”

* * *

**_Three months later_ **

“You know you really don’t have to do this, don’t you?” Ana asked hesitantly.

Edwin objected.“You already approved, as did everyone else; I don’t see the problem.”

“There is no ‘problem’ with it, but it looks like it’s going to hurt!” Angie declared.

“But it will be well worth it in the end,” he replied, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before the tattoo artist walked back into the room.

He looked at the six of them, remarking, “You know, I don’t know when I’ve seen a group this big just to watch a tattoo be done.”

“Well, he is technically getting three tattoos,” Daniel reminded the man, who only shrugged, and looked down at the sketches that Edwin had handed him earlier.

“You’re sure this is what you want, Mr. Jarvis?”

The butler nodded. “Yes.”

Three eagles on his chest – in colors of caramel, forest green, and fuchsia – to represent Daniel, Jack, and Angie, because as much as they’d all said the tattoos didn’t matter so much, and as much as he _did_ believe that… why shouldn’t he have them all represented on his body right alongside Peggy and Ana? After all, they all six were one another’s now, were they not?


End file.
